IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

Yet for Your Sake

Date: Jul. 3, 2026

Passage

Psalm 44:1-26

Come to Our Help

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

44:1   O God, we have heard with our ears,
    our fathers have told us,
  what deeds you performed in their days,
    in the days of old:
  you with your own hand drove out the nations,
    but them you planted;
  you afflicted the peoples,
    but them you set free;
  for not by their own sword did they win the land,
    nor did their own arm save them,
  but your right hand and your arm,
    and the light of your face,
    for you delighted in them.
  You are my King, O God;
    ordain salvation for Jacob!
  Through you we push down our foes;
    through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
  For not in my bow do I trust,
    nor can my sword save me.
  But you have saved us from our foes
    and have put to shame those who hate us.
  In God we have boasted continually,
    and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah
  But you have rejected us and disgraced us
    and have not gone out with our armies.
10   You have made us turn back from the foe,
    and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
11   You have made us like sheep for slaughter
    and have scattered us among the nations.
12   You have sold your people for a trifle,
    demanding no high price for them.
13   You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,
    the derision and scorn of those around us.
14   You have made us a byword among the nations,
    a laughingstock among the peoples.
15   All day long my disgrace is before me,
    and shame has covered my face
16   at the sound of the taunter and reviler,
    at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.
17   All this has come upon us,
    though we have not forgotten you,
    and we have not been false to your covenant.
18   Our heart has not turned back,
    nor have our steps departed from your way;
19   yet you have broken us in the place of jackals
    and covered us with the shadow of death.
20   If we had forgotten the name of our God
    or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21   would not God discover this?
    For he knows the secrets of the heart.
22   Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
23   Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
    Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
24   Why do you hide your face?
    Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
25   For our soul is bowed down to the dust;
    our belly clings to the ground.
26   Rise up; come to our help!
    Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

Daily Bread

Key Verse: Psalm 44:22

Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

In verses 1-8, the psalmist recollects the glorious past of the nation. The nation of Israel experienced glorious victories not because its ancestors had strong military power but because God fought for them (3b). When he and his countrymen remember their glorious past, they do not boast in themselves but in God.

And yet at present, things are quite different as we see in verses 9-16. We can’t be certain exactly what is happening in the nation. The nation’s armies were defeated, and their adversaries had plundered them. They were devoured like sheep and scattered among foreign nations. They were objects of reproach, scorn, and derision.

The psalmist does not understand why all these disastrous things have been happening. He can’t say that God is punishing them. There is no clear evidence the people are sinning more than the times when God was giving them victories. He does not understand why these disastrous things are happening. But he is resolved not to lose his faith in God. He knows God does not owe him an explanation. Like Job’s faith, it glorifies God not to lose faith in him even when things are seemingly bad.

Prayer: Father, help me not to lose my trust in you no matter how things look outwardly. Amen.

One Word: Trust in God

Daily Bread

God is Our Refuge and Strength

Psalm 46:1-11

Key Verse: 46:7,11

  The LORD of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

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